CFP: Decolonizing Medieval Irish Studies Panel

ICMS, Kalamazoo, May 9-11, 2024

Sponsored by the American Society of Irish Medieval Studies

Ireland is often described as England’s first colony, a testbed for the legal, cultural, and physical violence that the British Empire would later inflict with exponentially greater force in the Global South. The English government in Ireland endeavoured to legally subjugate Irish people, eradicate Irish cultural practices, and erode Irish landholding, often with brutal force. However, Ireland was also colonizer: Irish people participated in Britain’s expanding empire as merchants, administrators, and slave-holders. Moreover, Irish history has been misappropriated and weaponized (particularly in America) in service of white supremacy. This panel seeks papers that critically engage with Ireland’s fraught colonial past.

Please submit your title and abstract by September 15, 2023 via the ICMS Confex system: https://icms.confex.com/icms/2024/cfp.cgi